Parties

Unite: “The recent deal between the parties ties the hands of the Northern Ireland Executive…”

Pete Baker on November 28, 2015, 5:32 pm

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Unite protests against Fresh Start: The Unite union holds protests against the ‘Fresh Start’ deal outside offices of the NI parties responsible – DUP and Sinn Féin.

#GE16: Nothing is decided yet. There is still a lot to play for – for politicians on all sides.

Derek Mooney on November 27, 2015, 8:11 pm

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UNPOPULARITY POLLS: While the last couple of opinion polls have brought comfort to Enda Kenny and Fine Gael, showing the party at its strongest levels in over three years, those polling numbers – if repeated at the 2016 election – would still result in a significantly weaker situation for them.

One fifth of all (1/3 of SF) MLAs sitting right now are unelected…

Mick Fealty on November 27, 2015, 1:09 pm

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CUSHY NUMBERS: In the Assembly you can resign with no subsequent test before the electorate. No tug of war in the courts (as in the Donegal SW by election of 2010) which at least holds the possibility of massive electoral change. Is it going to change any time soon? Do Turkey’s vote for Christmas?

“Sinn Féin has, at best, walked off the pitch. At worst, it is an enormous act of political cowardice.”

Mick Fealty on November 26, 2015, 5:58 pm

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DING DING: Joan Burton with a rolling haymaker at Gerry Adams over his party’s deliberate equivocation over a welfare deal it helped to move and shape. “At the first sign of a major political challenge, Sinn Féin has, at best, simply walked off the pitch. At worst, it is an enormous act of political cowardice.’’

After a financial crisis government majorities shrink, parliaments fragment…

Mick Fealty on November 26, 2015, 2:47 pm

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POLL SCRAMBLE: According to the latest Ipsos/MRBI poll for the Irish Times the main political peloton behind Fine Gael currently consists of independents, Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail. At the moment Fianna Fail’s only compensation here seems to be that their positions reverse somewhat when there is a sign of an election.

Eastwood must dig his own trench and move his party out of the Hume shadow…

Mick Fealty on November 23, 2015, 6:52 am

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PAST OR FUTURE: The SDLP needs to do what it can to enlarge the shadow of the future (rather than the past) and create an expectation that the future will be better than the present (or indeed the past). They should encourage the electorate to judge politicians by actions rather than words.

Nine points on the succession of Colum Eastwood to SDLP leader…

Mick Fealty on November 17, 2015, 9:41 pm

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NEW BOSS: The SDLP is getting rather good at changing leaders, so that Colum Eastwood’s win flowed from disruption rather than by some kind of insider’s agreement. Being a Gen Xer may help him open doors with younger voters. And perhaps this weird and messy deal unwinding from Stormont will be his first real test?

Soapbox: Is it time to consider giving Loyalists special group rights?

Soapbox on November 17, 2015, 7:00 am

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LEVELLING UP: Sophie Long argues that we should equip Loyalists with the necessary power and resources to compete as equal participants in Northern Irish politics. She advocates the fairly radical step of implementing special group rights, not only in order for Loyalism to flourish, but as a matter of justice for minority groups.

SDLP15: A party more committed to its internal divisions than to doing what it needs to do

Mick Fealty on November 14, 2015, 10:33 am

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END GAME: The run in to the next election may have been an utterly stupid time to choose a new leader. And there is every possibility that McDonnell is being conveniently scapegoated to cover the sins of the party’s old guard. But there are more than that old guard quietly backing Eastwood.

LIVE blog for the SDLP Conference and Leadership election…

Mick Fealty on November 14, 2015, 8:00 am

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CONFERENCE LIVE: You can follow today’s proceedings of today’s SDLP conference and leadership election results in our CoverItLive live blog. David and Alan and other selected tweeters will keep you up to date with news and interviews, the leader’s speech at 12pm and finally the details of the results at 5pm.

“The first and deputy first ministers held a private meeting with the prime minister in London..”

Pete Baker on November 7, 2015, 12:31 am

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Back to political reality, because some recent posts have been less than relevant. No names, no pack drill. ANYhoo… As the BBC reports, following the Northern Ireland Secretary of State’s declaration that, “I think it is possible that we could have a deal next week“, the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers, the DUP’s Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, met with the Prime Minister in Downing Street today on Friday 6 November. The BBC reports that There is …

“…but latterly Robinson has performed well enough in this regard”

Mick Fealty on November 6, 2015, 5:21 pm

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The northern Irish media have been camped for so long on Peter Robinson’s lawn that there will be very few people left when he eventually does retire from politics who cannot say they hadn’t predicted it already (and in some cases, long long ago). In yesterday’s Irish News Newton Emerson has written something of a valedictory (just in case he is actually going to go this time). It’s a fittingly unsentimental account for such a cold fish of a politician: …

#Right2Change: a political movement that is “not quite in harmony just yet”

Robin Keogh on November 2, 2015, 2:04 pm

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Over the last few months discussions have taken place between left leaning parties, independents, social groups and trade union movements with a view to presenting a united left alternative to the electorate in next year’s general election. The initiative to bring together parties and individuals on the left was coordinated by an organisation called ‘Right2Change’. Born of the ‘Right2Water’ campaign; Right2Change is effectively a mass social movement generated out of what was initially the anti-water charges movement which saw dozens …

Why the battle over the SDLP’s leadership is worth paying attention to…

Mick Fealty on November 2, 2015, 9:21 am

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So Seamus Mallon backs Colum Eastwood to be the next leader of the SDLP. That should throw a predatory cat or two amongst the political pigeons (although in fact it can’t have been that unexpected). The SDLP leadership race has been quiet this time round. Of course that was also true at the beginning of the summer long contest for the leadership of the UK Labour party, and look how that hotted up towards the end. Keeping things tamped down suits the incumbent Alasdair …

Corbyn’s dire polling figures give Tories (and the SNP) huge political latitude

Mick Fealty on October 31, 2015, 7:15 am

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Yesterday there were five council by-elections in which both Tories and Labour stood. The overall swing to Conservatives was estimated at 3.8%. Hardly definitive judgement on Corbyn’s leadership, but at a time when the Tories are running a horse and cart through the benefit system hardly grounds for optimism either.

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

The Legend of Enda of the (wild whild) Wesht…

Derek Mooney on October 30, 2015, 4:51 pm

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TALL TALES: Enda’s ‪#‎armygate‬ saga has had pundits of all hues falling over themselves to explain, or even excuse, how and why An Taoiseach went to a recent EPP gathering in Madrid and told a story about the Irish Defences Forces being on standby to protect ATMs back in 2012.

Martin McGuinness: “…it is not conducive to getting a good outcome.”

Pete Baker on October 28, 2015, 4:29 pm

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Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness doesn’t appear to have had much to say today about the behind-closed-doors talks at Stormont – apart from telling the BBC’s Chris Page The timeframe for a deal in Stormont’s inter-party talks is “days, not weeks”, the deputy first minister has said. Martin McGuinness said he believed a deal was “achievable” and that the talks process was “intensifying”. Still, it’s good to see Sinn Féin on the same page as the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at …

RedC on Sinn Féin: “The greatest declines are seen among younger voters…”

Pete Baker on October 27, 2015, 3:20 pm

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Following on from Mick’s post, it’s worth highlighting an interesting detail from, Managing Director of RedC, Richard Colwell’s analysis of the poll. Back in December we were recording the highest levels of support seen for Sinn Fein in any RED C poll, reaching a high of 24% of the first preference vote. In today’s poll they secured just 16%, the worst level seen for the party since February 2014. That means that in effect the party has lost 8% support over …

RED C: SF continues to slide, and it’s hard to see a credible way back for the coalition

Mick Fealty on October 26, 2015, 9:43 am

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Just quickly to bring us up to date with the latest Red C poll… POLL: SBP/Red C (Mon-Wed, MoE ±3%) FG 30 (+2 in 6 weeks) Lab 7 (-3) FF 20 (+2) SF 16 Inds 20 (-4) Greens 2 Renua 2 AAA-PBP 1 SD 1 Others 1 — Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) October 24, 2015 Two notable things. One is the rise again of independents, which puts my working theory of ‘convergence’ severely to the test. As the new Social Democrat candidate for East Cork Ken Curtain notes: This #redc chart …

Something quite profound has shifted here, and more so within unionism than nationalism…

Mick Fealty on October 22, 2015, 5:50 pm

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So where does this all leave Unionism? Well, plainly not everyone is in the same place Gregory Campbell was last night. The brutal truth of all of this is that the DUP did not want to leave office over this, or almost anything else. In the blame game it is always unionism’s fault, so staying in situ was always Peter Robinson’s plan of action. Then along came Mike Nesbitt, who, no doubt having seen the term “Head of IRA Intelligence” …